Wheel-E Podcast: New SUPER73s, Urban Arrow e-bikes, more
And we’re live. Welcome back everybody to a new episode of the Wheelie Podcast. I’m your host Mike Tol and I’m joined again by Electrex Seth Win. How’s it going Seth? I’m good. Awesome. And we have a bunch of new stories to cover this week. We’ve got everything from new ebike unveilings. We’re going to hear about some Super 73s, a new Urban Arrow. Uh we’re going to talk about a new danger when you’re out ebiking that a lot of people don’t realize. Uh we’ve also got some motorcycle news. We’ve got a new model from Stark. Zero is uh taking itself on a bit of a Euro trip and a few other interesting stories we’re going to cover at the end there. So, where are we going to start with this week, Seth? All right, we’re starting with Super 73 unveils new ebike that leaves everyone scratching their heads. This one kind of blew my mind when I first saw it. This is the uh Super 73 MZFT. It’s a totally new model. They teased this a few weeks ago and we covered the teaser and it was very strange cuz the whole thing just looked kind of out of proportion. And now we see why. This is what appears to be basically a teen ebike. It’s, you know, not like a kids ebike, but it’s certainly not a full-size adult ebike either. So, it looks like it’s meant for that sort of like 13, 14y old crowd. You know, they’re just starting to ride to school, that sort of thing. Um, and that’s that seems like what Super 73 is going after here. Now, uh, I have to tell you, we don’t know a lot of specs yet. While they did unveil the bike, they didn’t actually launch it yet. So, the launch, I believe, is expected to take place early next month. So, uh, we know that it’s going to be a class 2 ebike because we can see the class 2 sticker on it. And so, that already tells us it’s got at most 750 watts of power and, uh, will top out at most 20 miles per hour. and that it does include a throttle. Other than that, we sort of have to guess from all the pictures. Now, one thing that we do know is that it’s got uh an option for two batteries. It comes with one battery, but there’s a uh this modular design, so you can put a second battery in there, and it also has locking storage. So, these are two things that you rarely see on ebikes. Certainly, the locking storage is is uh very rare. Uh in this case, the seat flips up and that’s how you access the batteries and the storage area. No, it doesn’t look like a huge area. I’m not even sure. You know, maybe it will fit a water bottle. Um, but that’s probably about the the max. You know, it seems like kind of a two banana storage uh box under the seat there. But it is neat for like, you know, if you’re riding to school and you want to put like, you know, your your phone or your wallet or, you know, something that you you don’t want to be carrying around at least in the locked portion there. So, that is kind of neat that they’re offering that. Um, other than that, the rest of the bike is kind of a mystery here. Looks like it’s a single speed. Uh we can see there’s no suspension. We don’t really know what the tires are. I I think those are 16s. I don’t think they’re 20 inch, but like the whole proportions here are kind of throwing me off. Like I can’t really tell what’s going on. Are really right. Yeah. Wish they would have included heights and weights in this lineup because the whole thing is this is very confusing. Um and it’s just it’s kind of a strange play. I mean, here’s the thing. So, Super 73, they they were always like the young, you know, motorcycle style, um, you know, like biker gang in a, you know, ebike sense company, right? So, they built up this big legacy on that and that was really cool. You know, they were one of the few companies that built a super strong community, but then they also got a lot of flack for people riding their bikes like motorcycles and the fact that you could unlock those bikes to go significantly faster than street legal speeds. And so once they started getting, you know, all the the negative attention for that, they went basically like, you know, street legal and they pushed out a uh an update that limited their bikes back to uh legal limits. you can no longer do like the off-road unlock and suddenly get a motorcycle on the streets. Uh now their bikes are class two. And so they they really tried to go like on the straight and narrow to make sure that they weren’t going to be the target of what’s eventually going to be a big crackdown on these types of bikes. So it kind of makes sense here that you know they’re going to bring in something that that sticks to those levels. Um, and it also kind of makes sense that they’re targeting that younger crowd because this is a uh burgeoning market in the ebike space. You know, like 10 years ago, we started with largely older folks. As ebikes have gotten more popular, they’ve become like the great equalizer. People ride them to work, etc. But in the last few years, I feel like the biggest uh growing market has really been younger riders, especially the ones looking for those higher power motorcycle style ebikes or even moving into like, you know, the Surons, especially the smaller versions of Surons for these younger riders, which that’s like a whole other issue of whether like, you know, 13-year-old kids should be on Surons. But it seems like this is kind of the the goal is to give kids a safer, more street legal alternative if they’re going to be heading towards ebikes. And there’s a bigger discussion there on whether that is the right, you know, direction to send kids. But if you’re going to have kids on ebikes, I think Super 73 is trying to say this is like a safer street legal way to do it. Uh Seth, you’ve got boys that are are all about bikes. What do you think about sort of this this teen target market here? Well, my my boys unfortunately are spoiled by uh having ridden a Toaria, so 20 mile per hour on this is probably going to be a non-starter for them, which is like bad parenting on my part. Um, but I think for younger kids, uh, 12, 13, 14, which I think this dem I mean I don’t like I have a kid who looks like he’s just a little bit older than these kids and he’s 14. So I think I think they’re probably like 12ish. I think this makes sense for for those kind of kids. Obviously, there’s going to be the people who are like 12-year-olds should be pedaling their own bikes, you know, like they shouldn’t be using motors. They have legs, you know, all that other stuff. Uh, which is fine. I get it. But, um, you know, at least not playing Fortnite, right? Yeah. They’re not on their phones at least. Well, maybe they are, but they’re at least riding around while they’re on their phones. Anyway, uh, this looks like a compelling It looks like a cool vehicle, right? I mean, I don’t know what cool is in 12-year-old parliament right now, but it looks to me like something that a 12-year-old, 13-year-old, 14-year-old maybe uh would really uh enjoy riding around. Um, and you know, it is at 20 m per hour a lot safer than um even some of the older Super 73s that are bigger and heavier and um you know, could be unlocked pretty easily. So, I think parents will probably appreciate this if if their kids are, you know, they want something that looks like a motorcycle but is a lot safer because of the speed limitations. I think this is probably going to be a good good choice. Yeah. And it definitely looks like it sticks the landing on that appearance. Like if you’re a kid looking for that sort of, you know, cool motorcycle styling, like they Super 73 knows what they’re doing there. So, they they hit that. Um, but of course the kicker is going to be the price. And until we know that, you know, it’s it’s sort of an an open-ended question on whether this will be a success because at a certain point, parents are going to look at this and then they’re going to look at like, you know, electric XP or Velatric or something else that if it’s half the price is going to be a bit of a hard sell even if Junior wants the motorcycle looking one. You know, I’m looking at the um gear ratios on this. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of pedaling going on here. Yeah. Yeah. Though, if that is a uh if that is a 16inch tire, which I think it might be, then maybe it’ll be a bit easier to pedal. But yeah, I mean, these things are they don’t look like they’re meant to pedal in anything other than a I ran out of battery and I need to get home since Right. Right. Yeah. So, all right. Well, uh it’ll be interesting to see where this ends up price-wise and um specwise. Um, and you know, if it’s if it’s lookswise going to be a compelling choice for younger kids who are all about the surrounds these days. Yeah, definitely. All right, let’s move on. Urban Arrow launches new more affordable electric cargo bike. Yeah, I should preface that this is more affordable in urban arrow speak. So, everything’s relative, right? So, like we covered uh a few months ago another Urban Arrow that was coming to the US that was uh that front loader style like the big bathtub in the front and that was I think $9,000. So, this is Urban Arrow’s new Breeze. It’s a uh longtail cargo bike. So, it’s more like what we’re used to seeing in terms of these stretched rear-end cargo bikes in the US. And this one uh well, it’s not available in the US yet. It’s still Europe only. It’s priced at, I believe, 5,400 maybe 5,500 euros in Europe, which is a little over $6,000. So, again, like expensive, but as far as Urban Arrow goes, that’s pretty darn affordable for their lineup where you’ve got a lot of like $9,000 super high-end cargo bikes. Um, now, of course, if that’s being compared to like a, you know, a Rad Wagon or or other um uh I got distracted by the tail there. or other cargo bikes in the US, you know, that’s that’s a lofty lofty price. But Urban Arrow is a very different company, right? Like this is a uh Dutch cargo bike maker. These are the kind of bikes that if you’re literally getting rid of your car and going all cargo bike, this is what you get. Um, you know, it’s got top-of-the-line Bosch cargo motor. It’s got high-end components. Um, even just like the kickstand on this thing looks like it came off of a motorcycle, not like an electric bicycle. So, this is a significantly higherend longtail cargo bike than we’re used to seeing, and I’ll be excited to see this one come to the US market. Now, I think it’s probably not going to do as well here as it would in Europe because in Europe, they’re used to paying these kinds of prices for higherend bikes. But, it is cool to see Urban Arrow bringing something that has their level of quality, their level of attention to detail at a more affordable price. Because as much as I love their front loader cargo bikes with that big bathtub design, like $9,000 is just a lot of money for a cargo bike. Like, I can’t imagine what volume they’re doing. At $6,000, still, you know, that’s a chunk of change, but for a European family that either doesn’t have a car or has one car and one bike, now you’re talking about something that’s doable, especially when you’re considering that, you know, these are bikes that are meant to last for years and years and years. and in this case, you know, carry two kids, do like, you know, a week shopping. Basically, heavy duty riding. You know, this is not a a metro bike. It’s not a commuter bike. This is a a serious cargo bike that’s that’s meant for hauling. So, this to me is cool to see with this new urban arrow breeze. And I’ll I’ll be interested to see if it does come to the US how it’s it’s received because it’s it’s very much more of a European pricing. And then even there like Europe, they’re they’re very much into their uh front loader, you know, the Bach Fiat style uh cargo bikes. So, you know, it’s kind of an American cargo bike. Yeah. Design in Europe at European pricing. The whole thing is just like an interesting hodgepodge of features and uh and specs here. So, a cool new offering from Urban Arrow, but one that I’ll be I’ll be fascinated to see how it actually does in the market because of these choices. So, uh you say these are 26-inch wheels. They look a little smaller than that. Um, yeah, it’s a good point. They maybe 24. They do look Yeah, they do. I mean, they’re not as small as 20s, but yeah, they maybe that’s just, you know, a Dutch woman and she’s very tall, right? I don’t know. That is kind of strange looking now that you mention it. Yeah. Um, bike looks great. Um, you know what it kind of reminds me of a little bit? Yeah. Uh that that leak you had a couple weeks ago. Um also also Yeah. You know, yeah, the the large down tube. Yeah, I can see it. And like the sort of chunky around the motor there. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t think about that until you bring it up now, but it does like in the profile have a bit of that uh that look to it. Yeah. Which makes sense because also guys come from like higherend bike uh backgrounds. So and similar lineage pricing wise probably also similar. Yeah. And that one is I think the 20 20th or 22nd. Yeah. We’re going to find out what they’re saying. We’ll learn more. And also uh we got a little bit of a pre-brief so we know some stuff about that. Um we’re, you know, we’re under embargo obviously, but um I can say that it’s going to be a very compelling uh thing. So, make sure everybody stays tuned uh for the news on October 22nd. Yeah, you guys are going to want to hear uh Seth Seth has some interesting first-person perspectives, so we’ll be excited to hear what he thinks of that new one. It’s going to be a big deal. Yeah, I’m excited. All right. Uh let’s go move on here. The hidden deadly threat to scooter and ebike riders besides cars. Yeah, this one it’s this actually comes in the form of a a very unfortunate story, but I think it’s important to tell. Um this uh the basis of this article was there was a uh fatality in Portland where a ebike rider unfortunately hit or actually I’m sorry, he was on a a scooter. He hit a pothole that was known to the city and like everyone all the businesses on that road have been calling the city for for a long time asking him to fix it and uh unfortunately he was killed after hitting this this pothole and um this this isn’t something that is like you know a very sporadic occurrence. This is something that is becoming much more common. These single vehicle accidents with microobility that is caused by not going too fast, not you know it being wet out, not car collisions, but merely infrastructure and and a lack thereof or a lack of maintaining that infrastructure. This is becoming much more common and it’s something that as microobility users, you know, ebike riders, scooter riders, all of us, that it’s something that we need to be aware about. We talk a lot about the importance of building new um uh cycling infrastructure or like alternative lanes, you know, for everybody’s uh scooters, electric unicycles, everything, you know, protected uh bike lanes, that sort of thing. But what doesn’t come up as much is about simply maintaining the infrastructure that we have. Because for a car, like, you know, you go over a pothole, it’s annoying, like you know, you bump, maybe it’s a flat tire if it’s, you know, a super sharp edge or deep pothole. But for microability users, potholes can literally be lethal. I mean, the these are life and death situations when you’re on two wheels, especially with uh a lot narrower tires. You know, if you’ve got fat tires, and this is one of the reasons a lot of people prefer fat tires, you can cover a lot of these obstacles and potholes. But for anyone that’s on narrower tires, especially, you know, road bike style tires or if you’ve got smaller wheels like scooters that often will have 8 in, 9 in wheels, then these potholes can be serious road hazards. And in this case, this is just such an unfortunate situation because uh this man the pothole that that he hit, like I said, it had been known to the city. The businesses had they were telling the news like they’ve been calling the city like for weeks, months, I think, saying like there’s this giant pothole. It’s really dangerous. People are complaining like, “Please come fix this.” And it was only after someone died that a couple days later the city came out and filled in the pothole. The question is why why does it take a death? Like why do we have to wait until someone dies to fix these things? It’s something that we haven’t talked about as much because, you know, it’s not as as sexy of a story as, you know, building bike lanes and building infrastructure, but maintaining what we have and ensuring that these kinds of obstacles uh aren’t sitting out there lurking for for ebike riders and microobility riders is just as important, perhaps more important, because these are the the hidden dangers. And I think that as more and more people move to ebikes, more and more people move to e- scooters, and we see this this slow but growing shift away from cars, this is only going to become more important. And I think it’s uh you know incumbent upon us as as riders to really demand from cities that this is something that’s taken care of. This is something that is given the effort that it needs. that road maintenance is no longer a nice to have, but when you’ve got more and more people on microobility vehicles, this is something that’s critical to the health and safety of of your local population. So, it’s terribly unfortunate that this is what it took uh to get in this case one specific pothole important and fixed, but I wanted to cover this because I think that it points to a a larger issue that we all need to be aware about and I think needs to be part of the the conversation in cities all over the US and all over the world. though I think in many countries they do a better job maintaining the roads but I think it’s something that needs to be part of the conversation more and more that it’s not just about you know building separate bike lanes it’s not just about making you know uh safer infrastructure it’s also about maintaining what we have and keeping it safe for everyone so that’s my little PSA there um without getting too grotesque um did it say like the cause of death was he wearing a helmet or I think he was not wearing a helmet Um, I’m always hesitant to get like too much into that. I personally always recommend that everyone wear a helmet. Um, I know that this is a touchy subject and it brings up like accusations of victim blaming and that sort of thing. I would never say that, you know, someone is at fault if they didn’t wear a helmet, but I personally always try to wear one. Um, I was only ever in one collision on an ebike. And I almost didn’t wear a helmet that time because I was literally it was like a two-minute ride. I almost didn’t put it on even though I always do. And then I I stopped. I was like, “You know what? I’ll just throw it on.” And I went like, you know, less than two minutes and on the way I got hit. And I was very glad that uh that I had put it on that time. So, I always recommend even if you know, you’re saying, “Oh, I’m just going down the road. You know, it’s like a one minute ride.” Always put it on. That’s that’s my thoughts there. Yeah, I agree. It’s It’s just easy to get into a habit of it. Leave the helmet on the bike. Just, you know, make it part of your routine. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, I think that um you know, as more people, especially as we ride, you know, faster ebikes and and it becomes an everyday vehicle, to me, there’s even more than than just wearing a helmet. You know, at a certain point, like I started uh trying to ride in closed toed shoes and, you know, not just wear my sandals when I can. I try to remember to wear pants and not shorts. Like, there’s, you know, preparing for that kind of stuff is is important. Obviously, you don’t want it to be too much of a barrier to people to be able to comfortably switch to riding an ebike, but I think that there is a a discussion on what is the right amount. And, you know, while that’s different for each person, I think it is an important discussion. Yep. I agree. All right, let’s move on. Uh, hey Bike Ranger 3.0 Pro review. 28 mile per hour foldable fat tire ebike with full suspension comfort. This one kind of surprised me. Um, you know, we’ve talked about each time that we cover a uh a hay bike, it always starts with, man, these things are getting better and better. But they really are like they’re they’re a pretty good company now. And in this case, I would say that the the Ranger 3.0 Pro here is probably one of the best full suspension folding ebikes uh out there right now in the budget range. I believe it’s $1,500 right now. the price seemed to fluctuate depending on different like promotions when it first came out a month or two ago, but I think now it’s leveled off at about 1,500. Uh, and it does have pretty decent full suspension. Like that’s the big takeaway here. There are a few other things, you know, we’ll go over those, but like the main takeaway is there are a lot of 20-in folders out there. This is one of the few that has full suspension. And I would I further quantify that by saying this is one of the few that uh has like legit full suspension. Like it doesn’t have some weird motorcycle style like dual coilovers in the back that look cool but don’t do anything. This is like four bar horse link. Like this is real suspension. I think they probably hired someone who actually designs bikes to to make this instead of just drawing up something that looks like a motorcycle and putting a couple coilovers on it. Um now this is not, you know, super high-end stuff, but it does ride better because of this. And I know a lot of people, especially uh older riders or just anyone that has, you know, back issues, that sort of thing, that they really prefer to stick with uh full suspension setups because it’s just so much more comfortable when you hit those bumps. You know, for normal bike lane riding, to me, it doesn’t make a huge difference, especially if you’ve got fat tires because they absorb that kind of road chatter. But when you really hit bumps, when you hit those potholes, um when you hop over curbs, which seems to happen a lot if you’re in an area that doesn’t have the best cycling infrastructure, and so you’re hopping from like road to sidewalk to trail, that’s where that full suspension really comes in. And of course, if you’re taking it off-road, now I will say this is not like a trail bike, you know, this is very much intended to be more of an urban bike. It does have, you know, like uh turn signals and and rack and fenders. This is very much like a commuter style bike, but with that uh full suspension, it just means that you can take it more places. You can take it on nature trails. You can hit potholes and bumps and feel more comfortable. Um on the spec side, it’s got what most um budget fat tire folding bikes have, 750 watts of power. The battery is, I believe, uh 15 amp hours at at 48 volts. So 720 watt hours if I’m not mistaken. Uh if not, it’s pretty darn close to that. uh removable battery. Pretty heavy. Um but it does fold up here. You can see if you’re watching the review with us. It’s got, you know, your basic standard uh folding setup here. It’s a bit chunky, but that’s just what you get with fat tire full suspension bikes. Like it’s you can have it comfortable or you can have it sort of light and spelt. You can’t have both of them. But for all the stuff you get here, you know, rack, fenders, uh, turn signals, horn, folding, fat tires, like it’s it’s pretty good for for 1,500 bucks. If I could have changed one thing, I probably would have uh opted for 3-in tires instead of 4 in. I just don’t think that the 4 in is necessary. Um, especially with the full suspension. like if it was a rigid bike, then yeah, the 4 inch is helpful because you get that extra air cushion, but I just don’t think that uh you know, you need it on this this level of full suspension bike. And it just makes the bike heavier when you’ve got that extra rubber there. Um if you actually take fat tires off of a bike and you hold them, they’re surprisingly heavy. Like rubber is not a light material. You don’t think the tires add much, but they really add a lot of weight to it. So I could have cut some pounds there, I think. Um, then the last thing is, uh, you actually see in the review there that it’s got the NFC unlocking, which is pitched as like a really cool security feature. And it it has some advantage there. Like you legit can’t turn on the bike and steal it without either the NFC card or using the PIN that you can set up like if you lose your NFC card or you don’t want to carry it on your keys. However, for me, it’s just an annoying extra step. like I’m usually locking my bike either in a garage or a bike room like I’m rarely leaving it out in public. Uh unless it’s, you know, like five minutes at a store kind of thing. So, while it’s a neat feature and especially if you’re like a delivery rider or something and you’re like all the time leaving your bike outside, I I could see it. But for me, it’s just kind of overkill. And I wish there was a way to just totally disable either the pin or the card because for me, like I was just leaving the cards clipped onto the the uh the brake cables so they were there and it wasn’t annoying. I didn’t have to fish it out or or forget it in my uh my other pants. But uh all told, I would really recommend this to someone who’s looking for that uh full suspension comfortable setup because there’s just in this category, there’s just not that much out there that’s decent quality. It’s a lot of kind of junky stuff. So, this is a pretty good one at a budget price. Yeah, BBike continues to impress. Uh just, you know, I keep talking about my Vermont Hey, uh Tyson from I don’t know, three years ago now. Still kicking up there all through the winter. You know, the hydraulic disc brakes are great. Um so, really happy with them and and uh can recommend them wholeheartedly. Yeah, I think they’re they’re doing some good things over there. The first uh you know, I think when they first came out, it was like 2020 or 2021. The first round of bikes was a little rough around the edges, but they’ve been making big improvements. Yeah, the the first round we I don’t know about you, but I was thinking, oh, just another drop ship company with a silly name. And um you know they they’re kind of the second round came in a little bit more polished and then they’ve done even more since then. Definitely. All right. This is probably a very niche product. A new electric unicycle hits an insane 93 m hour top speed. This isn’t going to be a new bestseller. Uh a 90 plus mph electric unicycle. All right. Well, I wouldn’t call it too soon. Um, so yeah, this is the new Inmotion P6. It’s um basically for insane people, it seems like who would like to go 90 miles an hour on a single wheel. It has a 20 kilowatt peak motor. I think it’s 6,000 continuous watts, but at a certain point, like when you have enough zeros, like it’s all just very very powerful. like I don’t know that I could tell the difference between a like a 10 kilowatt and a 20 kow electric unicycle at that point. Um it’s a 235 volt system like that that’s the only way you can get to that kind of power at a certain point because you just can’t keep increasing the the current or you’d have wires the size of like a garden hose in there. So it’s an incredibly high voltage system. It claims an acceleration of 0 to 50 km/h. It’s about 0 to 31 in under two seconds, which if you’ve ever ridden an electric unicycle, you’ll know that like the control system is basically you lean forward to go forward and you lean back to to break. And so to lean forward on something that’s self-balancing and then hit 30 miles an hour in less than two seconds, like the amount of faith you have to have in the in the device between your ankles is is something that I don’t think I uh I possess here. But it is neat that this exists. Um, and it also has a pretty large battery, I should mention, too. It’s 4.2 kilwatt hours, which like there are electric motorcycles that have less battery than that. So to fit all of that in an electric unicycle is is pretty impressive. Um oh at the end I just tossed a video of another in motion that is significantly less powerful in uh to uh to give a sense of what it’s like to ride these things. Um so if you’re watching the video here with us that’s a lower power model. But this new P6 is I think this is probably the highest performance electric unicycle out there. I don’t know of any others. If I if I’ve missed one that has higher performance than 20 kilowatts and and 93 miles an hour, let me know in the comments because that would be an impressive feat to have something more than this. But um so far I think this this basically tops it. Now I don’t know who this is really for because there are lots of you know 50 mph electric unicycles out there. In motion has has several and to me it’s like how much more do you need? Now, I get that that, you know, the EU community out there is is very adamant about these these vehicles, and I appreciate a lot of their advantages. You know, like they’re smaller than an ebike, so they’re easier to bring in with you. Uh, lots of places you don’t have to worry about locking up because where you’d lock up an ebike, you just roll this in with you. Um, they’re they’re more convenient. They fit in smaller areas. You can transport it in a smaller vehicle, even like the front seat of a car. Um, you know, there’s a lot of lot of advantages. They also for people who ride them often, they basically become an extension of your body. And so for a lot of people, they’re just intuitive. Like it’s it sounds counterintuitive because it seems like this would be hard to balance on, but when you really do it a lot, it just becomes an extension of like your feet basically. So, I get that there are people who really like these, but at this level of performance, like we’re looking at pictures of guys in full leather racing suits for motorcycleycling, and that’s like that’s the only place I can imagine this would be useful or necessary is for like racing purposes because even if you’re commuting on big roads on these, like 50 or 60 miles an hour is probably fine, right? Like maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there are people that were saying like, “Man, this 60 mph electric unicycle is really holding me back.” can’t even pass people on the highways. Yeah, exactly. I can’t get in the left lane on this thing. You know, I find it so um for those uh listening, uh we’re looking at a picture of two uh leatherclad uh riders, and I think they’re going so fast that they actually have to lean forward like at almost like a 45 degree angle and put their arms out because there’s just so much wind resistance that would knock them off the bike. Like they don’t have the ankle support for that. So to go that fast, you have to like go at an angle. And I wonder if like the thing is built for that. It’s crazy. Yeah, it definitely looks like they’re launching there because they’re so I mean that almost looks like more than 45 to me. Like they’re I don’t know how fast they’re going yet, but they’re definitely accelerating with that extreme lean. Like when I ride, I don’t feel like I’m leaning more than maybe 10 degrees when I’m accelerating. Like I’m certainly not laying down like they’re doing it, right? Yeah. It’s this is uh this is wild. It’s also Yeah. Oh, I’ve seen um these go up the steepest hills I’ve ever seen in my life. Like Yeah. Like people are like mountain climbing or like um you know they’re they’re literally climbing up and somebody just comes up with one of these and like basically just it’s it’s all about how how much uh the tread can hold the thing. But they’re going up like more than 45 degree angles. Probably like 60 degrees or something crazy. Oh yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it it definitely becomes a a traction issue, but I think this is in terms of hill climbs, this is probably the best micromobility device for it because basically you’re always at the right angle because it’s selfbalancing. So, yeah, like you’re just you’re limited by the physics of traction at that point. Like if your tires were sticky enough, these things could climb a wall. Yeah. And it’s interesting, there’s that whole unicycle world where, you know, these things are kind of like skis and then um you have the one wheels which kind of take the skateboard or snowboard stance where they’re sideways. And you know, it’s it’s interesting to see how both of these are existing and you know, people like each one for different different purposes, but um you know, they’re they’re both getting the job done of of making uh a new new ways to get around town. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like this is definitely the um there’s a a lid for every pot of micromobility, right? Yep. Uh, good job keeping it under 100, I guess. All right, this is some interesting news for me. Uh, e- motorcycle maker Zero is moving its headquarters from the US to Europe. Yeah, this is uh this is also a bit of a head scratcher or perhaps not if you’ve been following Zero for the last few years, but um the company which is uh I think they’re still probably the biggest uh electric motorcycle company in the US. Um, they’ve been headquartered out in Santa Cruz, California, and now they’re moving to the Netherlands. Uh, they are going to keep a uh bit of a skeleton crew in California. They’re going to call that their uh innovation center. So, they’ll keep some engineers there to work on R&D. Um, I think that’ll let them still sort of like put a designed in California sticker or something on there. Um, and perhaps it it it has a few other logistic benefits, but it seems like for the most part the the company and the and the headquarters are are going European. Now, that in and of itself is not surprising because Europe has always been Zero’s largest market despite being a a California company originally. Um, the European motorcycle market is just significantly larger than the US market. Um, regardless of, you know, electric or or ice powered. Um but certainly in electric it’s just uh you know the the US market pales in comparison to how many electric motorcycles are sold in Europe. So that that’s not uh surprising there. Uh the other thing is that Zero has also been increasing the international um component of of the business for a while. So originally the bikes were more assembled in the US. You know there were always uh parts that were were manufactured overseas and there was more assembly here. Over time, more and more of the actual production has moved overseas. Uh there’s been uh obviously significant uh partnership with uh Chinese factories but also um the company has has created other partnerships across Asia uh I believe in India as well. So there’s a lot of outsourcing that’s been going on. Uh the newest bikes even are a a huge partnership with Zongzen. I think the XE and XB are basically Zongen motorcycles that you know Zero I think put their motor in kind of thing. Uh if that and perhaps some of their programming as well. I think it might be more just like their logos and stickers. Yeah, I mean I think there there has been some level of um you know hardware collaboration but it’s the the proportion of what has been zero and what has been Asian OEMs has been changing over the years in the Asian uh direction. So to see Zero sort of finally uh move the last bit of it out of the US is is not surprising here. But um they’ve so long had that like California culture to the company that I think this was still a shock to a lot of people even though we’ve known you know they sell more bikes in Europe um they get more components in Asia like at a certain point what are they doing in California it still comes as a bit of surprise to see them finally say like yeah you know we’ve we’ve kind of uh done all we can do here and it just doesn’t make sense you know financially with the market with the talent etc to to still be headquartered in California. Now, what that means for the future of the company, I don’t know. We’re seeing them move towards smaller bikes. We’re seeing them move to more Asian production. Um, it’ll be interesting to see how those smaller bikes do in Europe. Uh, at least in Europe, they’re uh XE and XP are street legal, which there. That’s amazing. Yeah. In the US. So, again, like all the signs were kind of pointing to this. Perhaps it should have happened sooner, you could even say. Um, but it’s just always been such like, you know, an American legacy for as long as, you know, an electric motorcycle company can have a legacy, which is a little over 15 years for for zero. Um, which again is pretty long for the electric motorcycle market, but like that legacy has always been California. So, it was just kind of like, you know, a blow to see them move out of the state, move out of the country to uh to head to Europe. Um, there are some uh there are some other zero rumors swirling around now that I’m trying to confirm. So, I’m not going to share anything here yet until I can get some, you know, confirmation on this and not just spread rumors. But, there’s there’s some happenings at zero that we’re we’re investigating that there could be some more more to this coming up in the in the next week or so once we continue. Headcount kind of things or is it um there’s some headcount? Yeah, there’s um uh potentially some some shakeups. So, uh again, like I I want to make sure I confirm everything fully before like I share anything, but um I I think there is more more zero news coming sooner rather than later. Yeah. I mean, I have to say it’s a shame that they only homologated um those the the small bikes in Europe. I think there’s a real market for Siron type bikes that are legal in the US. I think new has the only one that’s officially street legal, right? Yeah. Um there so there are some states that you can like get a kit and homologate yourself a a siron. But yeah, news is designed to meet federal regulations as is. So you don’t have to go through like uh jumping through hoops and stuff. Yeah. Right. Hopefully more more of those coming down the pike. And speaking of those, uh we have our last story. Stark Var SM launched as a streetle legal electric motorcycle with jawdropping specs. Stark has just been like on a tear. I mean, they’re uh so this is a a Spanish uh electric motorcycle maker. Um they’re pretty new. They I believe they started operations in I want to say was it like 2022 if I’m not mistaken. Um by last year they were already selling bikes at a good clip. This year they announced profitability which is crazy for I mean there are a lot of electric motorcycle companies that are not profitable at all. I don’t believe zero is profitable. Um Anerica went under, Cake went under. Like you know it’s it’s hard right now to to turn a profit in this market. uh these are expensive vehicles, the market’s smaller, etc. So, the fact that they’re already profitable is a huge deal. And that was with an off-road bike. Now, the new Starkvarge MX takes sort of the foundation of what they’ve built um and turned this into, sorry, the SM has taken the foundation of the MX and turned it into a street legal bike. Um but it’s not just like, you know, throwing turn signals onto this thing. Um they’ve really made a new model here. So, um, it’s designed for road use. This is a super moto, so it’s not a huge bike. I think it’s about 270 lbs or so, but it’s incredibly powerful. Um, 80 horsepower, 675 foot-p pounds of torque at the rear wheel. Uh, all this delivered like effortlessly, right? Like there are no gears here. It’s a single speed. So, this is like scooter controls. Literally a twist of the wrist and you’re putting down over 600 foot-pounds of torque to the pavement, which is kind of crazy. I mean, this is just uh like uh this is a specimen of of engineering compared to anything we’ve seen in the market for this type of bike. Now, it is expensive. It’s somewhere around I want to say €12,000. Um let me double check that here so I don’t lead you astray. Uh yeah, €12,990. So, um, fairly expensive. That’s the starting price, too. That’s the 60 horsepower one. So, the the higher power 80 horsepower, I think, is another,000. It’s like 14,000. Um, so convert that to dollars, it’ll be slightly higher. Uh, but it is available in all the different markets that they sell in. So, available in the US, available in Europe. Um, they’re really pushing this thing far and wide. They’ve got a large network of dealers out there as well. So, um, this is basically just an incredibly impressive format, and it’s really cool to see Stark bring this to the street because they’ve dominated in the, um, sort of motocross, um, off-road segment. Their bikes even got, uh, electric motorcycles banned from the X Games for being too good. So, um, to see them take the the foundation of what they’ve built for off-road and bring it to street bikes, specifically in this case, the super moto category, is just really cool. I’m really excited to see this engineering out on the street. I I haven’t gotten a chance to ride this one yet. Um, unfortunately, I was double booked. So, um, I didn’t get a chance to try one of these earlier. Hopefully, I will be able to get on one of these at some point. It’s probably more bike than I can handle. Um, I’m not used to I mean I have a Live Wire, but like I don’t it’s it’s not a super moto, right? Like it’s it’s a nice, you know, heavy planted street bike. And this thing is really designed to to open it up and do all sorts of things. Like you see a guy riding up on a crazy uh highbanked oval there. Like this is a bike that you can go out and have some real fun on. Um for anyone who’s like into stunts, that sort of thing, this is going to be a lot of fun to rip on. And the fact that it’s street legal is just a cherry on top. you know, it’s like a a Suron on steroids that you can get licensed and ride legally and not worry about having to outrun the cops on. So, very exciting here. Not the the cheapest bike out there, but they know what they’re doing with with designing and building these things. And so, uh I have to imagine it’s it’s worth it for the build quality that Stark has been putting into these. Yeah. And also, um you know, they did make some upgrades. I I noticed they they had some gear ratios and some stuff like that, but you can also throw off-road tires on this and take it off-road pretty quickly. Yeah, you definitely could. Um, but like their their MX would probably be the better one for that. Like it’s just the suspension’s more tuned, that sort of thing. But the cool thing is like you could, you know, basically ride trails on the weekend and use this as your commuter to uh to work during the week, right? I mean, for a while I had Zero’s Super Moto. It was their FX S, if I’m not mistaken, or FXE. This is like 2019. But yeah, I would ride that on trails and I ride it on the street. I took that thing everywhere. Yeah, this is a cool product. Uh, so you said you were double booked. Are you are you scheduled to go out there anytime soon? Um, I don’t have it on the calendar yet, but I have sort of an open invitation, so I got to figure out when I can get out to Barcelona and uh and try this thing out. Cool. Yeah, looks like a ton of fun. All right. Uh, that’s all for um stories. Let’s go into the comments. Uh, we got some uh LinkedIn conversation here. Wow. 20 mile per hour. Um, I think that was their their first story. 73. Yeah. Yeah. Um, easy 13. I’d rather go with the wired Freedom for a third the price. I think that’s compared to the Urban Arrow. Um, yeah. I thought the the wired bikes I thought those were like sort of the higher power. Was that maybe compared to the Super 73? I’m not sure. Maybe. Or is the Freedom Is the Freedom their cargo bike? Should look that up real quick. Yeah, I don’t know. Wired as well. I’ve heard mixed reviews about Wired. All right. While we’re doing that, uh, skeptic says it’s an auto cycle, so I think it’s okay to ask here. Did you watch Aterara’s first day as a publicly traded stock yesterday? Um, I did. It was it it lost a lot of value. Uh, I think Did they just go public? Yeah, sort of. Um, they’re they’re listed now and, uh, people who own stock are now transferring their their money in and out of it. Um, you know, I think the idea of the aptter is so amazing, but it I just don’t think the folks running the show there are uh spool up a automobile company type people and I don’t know if they have anybody uh there kind of in that realm which is so unfortunate because um the idea of the appera is amazing. I I have a reservation for one. Um which I you know I don’t ever plan I don’t I don’t expect to ever see that come to light but um yeah I was going to ask if you think you’ll get it. That’s No, I think I put a hundred bucks down on it. It was more like a you know just here. It makes sense like the the buyin at the table, right? Yeah. Um, but you know, obviously like it would be cool to see if they got bought by like I don’t know, Samsung or uh some bigger automobile company or motorcycle company um and you know a manufacturing person got in there and made made the design happen because it’s it is super impressive. I mean um I don’t have it a URL handy but it’s basically a solar car. Um it’s it’s interesting cuz the it’s so aerodynamic that it’s like um if you had a uh 1 ft by one ft box moving through the air it’s like the same resistance as that which is very you know very small. I think they said that the um rear view mirror singular on the Ford F-150 has more wind resistance than the terra does. Wow. That’s That’s nuts. Yeah, in concept it seems incredible. I haven’t followed it that closely because also like when it came back it just like right from the beginning it seemed like a don’t get too committed kind of situation. Yeah. I mean it did feel like they were like, “Oh, let’s let’s resurrect this idea.” Yeah. But I just I feel like we don’t live in a in a good and just enough world where something like that can succeed as a viable product, you know? And I wish that wasn’t the case. Like I wish those were the normal cars around. I mean maybe maybe with crypto and um AI taking up all the electricity all of a sudden those will make more sense. I don’t know. Yeah. Hopefully. All right. Uh regarding infrastructure, I’m always amazed that the people are able to commute on escapeboards because those require manicured surfaces. Micah, you and I both know, uh, you don’t even have to hit a pothole, just like a sidewalk crack or something and, uh, you’re going forward. It’s like one of those things where you have to keep your eyes on the ground when you’re riding skateboards. Yeah, I do minimal skateboard time anymore. Like, there’s still a lot of fun. Like, it’s more of a thrill than I get from any other type of microobility device, I would say. But I really only like to ride on roads that I know because like I know where the potholes are, that sort of thing. Whenever I’m riding a skateboard in a new area, it’s just so stressful because every little thing you’re watching for because it’s such a bigger deal than when you’re on an ebike. Yeah, it’s fun. Way more fun to carve though. Those things are are a blast. Yeah. Um I saw Fresu of the Can-Am Outlander electric ATV. I went and put $1,000 down on one. is supposed to take delivery in January or February. Yeah. Canab I think they’re Canadian, right? Um they they have a new uh four-wheeler out. Um I don’t know. Did you would you have opinion on it? Um so actually I need to check out Fred’s review. Uh I covered when they launched it, but I haven’t heard Fred’s uh analysis from his uh experience on it. They are a bit pricey. I think it was was it like 20 or 25,000? Something like that. I mean, that sounds like a lot. Maybe it can’t be that high, but it was pretty pretty expensive if I’m not mistaken, but like very high power. It had um one of the highest, if not the highest uh tow capacities for an ATV of any ATV on the market, if I’m not mistaken, like compared to even gas ATVs and several that are significantly more powerful. um because I think it falls in something like the 4 to 600cc equivalent and there are you know like thousand cc and higher gas ATVs out there. So the performance is incredible. Um and Can-Am, you know, they’ve been doing um off-road vehicles for for a long time. They they’ve got their new electric motorcycles that they brought back. Um, I’ll be excited to see them bring this to some of their other uh, you know, their um, their jet skis, their maybe that uh, what’s that three-wheeler they have? The not the slingshot, that’s the Polaris, right? The uh, I forget what their three-wheeler is, but like they’ve they’ve got a bunch of uh, vehicles, so it’ be cool to bring that in, but the the Outlander uh, electric ATV certainly looks interesting. Bit pricey, but you know, these first vehicles of any category are going to be pricier. Yeah. All right. All right. Uh, question. How is maintenance on ebikes? I could take my analog bike to the local bike shop to get repairs, part replacements. How does that work for the all the brands of Chinese ebikes? Um, I think I think where you can make money, I think, uh, ebike um, sorry, bike shops are doing some repairs on bikes, especially if it’s the non-motor parts or battery. Um, but even even that is I think some bike shops aren’t letting in certain Chinese batteries. They don’t want to store the batteries reliability. But um and it’s very hit or miss. Yeah. Like you know you really have to check like each bike shop. It’s getting better. Like it used to be years ago like I would you know roll into a bike shop with a an ebike and they’d be like out. Yeah. Have tires. Exactly. Yeah. So now it’s much better. Um you know they they see that you know half of bikes out on the road more in some places are ebikes. So like you know they they see that if they want customers they have to accept them. But um yeah for for stuff like you know controllers not going to be able to help you. But most normal bike stuff you know you need pads you need tires that kind of stuff. A lot of ebikes now are pretty accepting of even the Chinese ebikes. All right we’re going to skip ahead a little bit. Uh, who is supposed to be the market for the 0xe? 6500 is way too much for such a low speed and range. Well, it’s a siron basically. Um, and obviously you can get surrounds for significantly less than that. Um, but yeah, it’s kind of the big siron. Like I think it’s more meant to compete with the um is it the stormb is the bigger one I think. Yeah. Not the um not the firefly but like the the larger Yeah. Yeah. It’s light B and the Stormb B. And I think Yeah, you’re right. The Stormb B is more akin to it. Although I think it’s like 5,000 or something for that. Yeah. I mean, it’s more expensive. Theoretically, you’re paying for a higher quality product. Um whether or not that’s true or not, I’m not entirely sure, but it is competing against like the the lighter end of like the KTM uh electric uh the free ride and some of the other larger off-road electrics. uh you know it’s half the price of a Stark for example. So I think it’s for someone who wants to go more serious than a than a Suron or certainly a Sauron uh lightbe but isn’t ready to like throw down on a Stark kind of thing. How many people are in that Goldilock zone? I’m not sure but I think that was their their thought process. Yeah. And I’m sure a lot of people are going to you know take note that there’s going to be zero shops around that can service these things. Um, and the brand’s been around for 15 years, and so there’s some advantages there. All right. Carl says, “When government incentives and therefore EV cars are slowing growth, policy makers and market mavens would look beyond a car and choose to boost active transportation and microability, better solution.” All right, that’s a little soap boxy, but I agree. Uh, regarding Appa, I think their big mistake was switching from a low volume handbuilt production plan to a high volume plan that requires a lot of expensive tooling. Um, I mean, maybe maybe just to get a few on the road that they they could have done the low volume handbuilt, but um, you know, now that they’re, you know, kind of on the brink, this high volume plan seems like maybe they should have uh done something else. It’s It’s frustrating because, you know, they we’ve been sitting here for like almost a decade in their second iteration and they keep saying, “Well, we need more money. We need more money. And it’s like, all right, when do we give up here? Yeah. When do you pull the plug? All right. Carl says, “My only beef with Atera is that it’s the opposite of good packaging. It’s gangly while being relatively small interior, but if that’s what it takes to get 10 miles per kilowatt hour, I approve.” And then, uh, skeptic says, “Uh, the Can-Am electric ATV starts at 13,000. I accessorized my build for 16,000.” Oh yeah, I was way off. Sorry about that. Yeah. Uh, bike shops having to learn to service ebikes. I guess it’s the most I guess is most are livid about the lack of interchangeable parts on most. Not supposed to be a trade where you have to research and order bespoke parts. Yeah. I mean, even bike shops aren’t, you know, they’ve got a a variety of bikes already and bespoke stuff is going to make them more money probably. So, I don’t think they’re too worried about that. Yeah. But also, a lot of the cheaper Chinese ebikes, they use I mean, not disposable is not the right term, but like, you know, they the the really bottom end of all the components, right? So, like the worst derailers, the worst brake levers, like a lot of these parts. And so like when you have to go out and find each of those and a lot of the bike shops don’t stock such low-level parts, right? Because like how much money can you make on a turn derailer? I can’t imagine there’s a lot of profit there. But it’s also an opportunity to upgrade theoretically. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got an Olivio here if you want to uh put that on your uh junky $500 Amazon bike. Get some GX parts on there. All right. After tried to build the company with handbuilt and failed. I think they just might make it if they don’t limit themselves to the US market. Um, yeah, we just need to see some actual vehicles roll off the line. That’s that’ll get that’s what’s going to make make or break that. Yeah. I mean, I would love to see it work, but I don’t know. I I you putting out $100 is even more faith than I have in them. I I did that about what, eight years ago or something? Seven years ago. Oh, good. So, would you do it today? No. Okay. Well, there there you go. All right. I think that is the end of the comments if I’m not mistaken. So, thank you all for joining in. Uh very excited to have you here with us and we’ll be back in another two weeks with the next episode of the Wheelie Podcast. See you next time everyone.
This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes new models from SUPER73 and Urban Arrow, a stark warning about a danger to e-bikes and other micromobility riders, new e-moto from Stark, Zero goes on a Euro-trip, and more. https://electrek.co/?p=439297
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the Wheel-E podcast today:
00:59 SUPER73 unveils new e-bike that leaves everyone scratching their heads
08:35 Urban Arrow launches new, more affordable electric cargo bike
13:40 The hidden deadly threat to scooter and e-bike riders (besides cars)
18:49 Heybike Ranger 3.0 Pro review: 28 MPH foldable fat-tire e-bike with full-suspension comfort
25:55 New electric unicycle hits an insane 93 MPH top speed
32:20 E-motorcycle maker Zero moving headquarters from the US to Europe
38:00 Stark VARG SM launched as street-legal electric motorcycle with jaw-dropping specs
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